Featuring events from all walks of Second Life

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Adopted as an integral part of Japanese fashion culture in Second Life, Lucky Boards “Lucky Chairs” are designed to generate more popularity and sales at shop destinations by offering free gifts to the shoppers who wait for the first letter of their avatar’s name to be called. Lucky Boards may have exclusive prizes – usually more fun, light-hearted gifts – or offer free versions of otherwise expensive merchandise to reward customers who patiently stand at the store. A Lucky Board may have a timer of the shopkeeper’s choosing before it switches letters, most generally do three minutes, five minutes, or ten minutes if a more expensive prize. Some shopkeepers are more generous than others but definitely Japanese shops are the most giving when it comes to these free goodies.

Other countries too use Lucky Boards but the Japanese culture has definitely adopted it the most, I often see Japanese fashion goers in Second Life “camping” my own board at strange EST hours, clad in fairy kei, himegyaru, Fruits!, traditional yukatas (casual summer kimono), lolita clothing or other ‘kawaii’ (cute) fashion styles with accessories, teleporting their other friends to join in while talking over waiting for the Lucky Board to switch to one of their names’ first letter. It definitely generates plenty of customers who spend time exploring the shop while waiting for the timer to switch on the Lucky Board in hopes of a free gift, shopkeepers aspire for the shopper present in the store to spread word about the Lucky Board or perhaps buy a piece of merchandise as well along with earning the fortuitous gift.

While wandering the Japan SIM, I found a bountiful amount of girls dressed in dainty, often soft-colored clothing waiting at +RUI+ to have their name called on the 10-minute timer for the Lucky Board for the Black & Pink Gothic Lolita Mary Janes newly stocked. If a shopper lacks time to wait at the board, they can be purchased inside for $150 Linden per shoe color. Unlike the non-Japanese Lucky Board-goers, these girls stood silent for the most part, with the exception of teleporting one of their friends in to win the prize followed by “ありがとう” (“Thank you”) before exiting upon claiming her prize. Many shoppers do this in order to hurry the board up to choose the next letter instead of waiting the full 10 minutes at +RUI+ for another letter to be re-selected.

At more internationally popular places like Love Soul, the Lucky Chair is shared between all sorts of cultures and sometimes the annoyance can generally be felt when cultures clash between two friends from Europe spamming sound clips “gestures” and talking nonstop and the Asian friends typically keeping chatter in IMs or only typing when congratulating the winner of the Lucky Chair. It’s really interesting to view the fashion differences between different cultures waiting for the same free product from the Lucky Board too, those from Japan generally in more refined, feminine styles as opposed to the American’s more casual or sometimes skimpy fashion. It’s a wonderful way to acknowledge potential friends and acquaintances who enjoy the same stores and fashion styles as you do too.

All cultures enjoy Lucky Boards – despite the fact it’s definitely more prevalent amongst Asians and specifically the large Japanese population on Second Life – and it’s a great way to have an eternal ‘hunt’ event, keeping shoppers at your store while upping your population count up for your area., the population count ultimately attracts even more customers if nothing else. It’s intriguing to meet people whose blogs you read online or a shop designer or shopkeeper, who too wait for the same item on the board as you do, literally all walks of life camp for the prizes to be won at the Lucky Boards.

And while I may have been the only non-Japanese avatar waiting in line for my gothic lolita shoes in pink and black varieties (and stood out like a sore thumb, as demonstrated by me carrying a multitudinous amount of colorful bird balloons in my hand and my rather American-looking, and confused “Why are we here?!” friend next to me), I always enjoy learning about new stores through the beautiful array of clothing and accessories worn by those shoppers around me, especially during a new Lucky Board release such as the quaint white shop in the Japan SIM, +RUI+.

With the hints dropped to each breeder through the KittyCats Addicts group notices hinting at a special event of some sort occurring this week as the Valentine’s Day event wraps up, KittyCats continues its Mardi Gras-themed celebrations by surprising breeders who receive KittyCat boxes between 12AM on February 21st to February 23rd. With the in-world Mardi Gras Fashion Parade hosted by BOSL on Sunday featuring a Love Leopard – Ambrosia float made by KittyCats Artist Callie Cline, the special “costume” hinted at by Equinox Pinion seemed so apparent yet no one in the KittyCats community could figure out what the specialty awaiting breeders at midnight was yet each eagerly awaited and the suspense peaked when breeder and Too Adorable auctioneer Ifoni Kembla received the first special female box of the event.

KittyCats is only a few minutes into this event, and a few KittyCats boxes have popped up with names alluding to Mardi Gras yet no boxes have been opened at this time as it takes 30 minutes for a box to open. As the day approaches, KittyCats users hope to be able to obtain one of these gifts, which is chosen by random when breeding the KittyCats in this time frame. The special KittyCats are nothing more than costumes, decked out in what should be a very festive green, yellow, and purple display of Mardi Gras spirit. If a breeder wishes to remove the costume due to finally attaining their dream KittyCat, he or she must submit a support ticket and they’ll gladly remove the colorful wardrobe.

The second part of the Mardi Gras Fashion Parade in-world will be hosted by Opium at 4pm SLT.

Update 11:32AM SLT: Kitten Longmeadow on the KittyCats forum with the following text regarding the Mardi Gras KittyCats: ” They will have a costume over their real stats, which means if you have a Siamese Blue born it will still have the Siamese Blue trait as the first trait, it will just wear the special costume from the “special” KittyCatS. So you will not loose any traits you would have get with a normal born KittyCatS.”